[247] In which the celestial Athens is mentioned.
[248] Purgatorio, XXVII. 139-142.
[249] "I conceived myself to be now," says Milton, "not as mine own person, but as a member incorporate into that truth whereof I was persuaded."
[250]
"But now was turning my desire and will,
Even as a wheel that equally is moved,
The Love that moves the sun and other stars."
Paradiso, XXXIII., closing verses of the Divina Commedia.
[251] Dante seems to allude directly to this article of the Catholic faith when he says, on entering the Celestial Paradise, "to signify transhumanizing by words could not be done," and questions whether he was there in the renewed spirit only or in the flesh also:—
"If I was merely what of me thou newly
Createdst, Love who governest the heavens,
Thou knowest who didst lift me with thy light."
Paradiso, I. 70-75.
[252] Paradiso, II. 7. Lucretius makes the same boast:—
"Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante
Trita solo."